11 of the Weirdest Hair Removal Methods Ever Tried

I’m sure you’ve plucked, pulled, shaved, and waxed off unwanted body hair but, have you ever tried arsenic?

Here are ten of the weirdest hair removal methods humans have found throughout history.

11 of the Weirdest Hair Removal Methods Ever Tried

While we have a bunch of ways of removing hair today our ancestors were a little less fortunate. Here’s how they did it:

1. Rub A Rock On It

While this may seem super uncomfortable by today’s standards, people in earlier civilizations used rocks to remove hair a lot.

In Ancient Egypt, women would use pumice stones to rub the hair off their legs and underarms. Men would find sharp stones and use them to hack at the hair on their faces.

Historians have even found some tweezer-like devices made from clamshells in Egyptian tombs.

Can’t imagine getting a very close shave among this company of men and women but, better than nothing and makes for a nice hieroglyphic portrait.

2. Arsenic Will Do The Trick

Of all the hair removal techniques this one has the most inherent danger.

Women in the Renaissance would use a solution made of arsenic and quicklime to disintegrate their hair. The recipe was provided in a book found from 1532:

“How to Remove or Lose Hair from Anywhere on the Body

Boil together a solution of one pint of arsenic and eighth of a pint of quicklime. Go to a bath or a hot room and smear medicine over the area to be depilated. When the skin feels hot, wash quickly with hot water so the flesh doesn’t come off.”

This solution would be similar to Veet or Nair today. Well, other than the whole flesh-dissolving part?

3. Don’t Remove It At All

In a refreshing turn of events, some cultures didn’t remove their hair at all. For instance, Chinese hair removal wasn’t practiced until modernity.

According to Chinese tradition, any alteration of the body could bring bad luck to you and your family.

So, while razors and tweezers did eventually make their way into Chinese homes, there was a time when you didn’t have to be hairless as a woman.

4. Threading Isn’t Just For Needles Anymore

When looking for different hair removal methods we stumbled upon a weird one that is still being done today. The art of hair threading is the removal of hair using two pieces of thread.

The hair threader twists the two threads around the hairs to pull them out.

This method can give you very precise results. Due to the preciseness of this method, it is popular for shaping women’s eyebrows.

5. It’s The Bees Knees, Or, Wax, The Bee’s Wax

Waxing isn’t that weird but how the wax used to be obtained can get a little risky.

Women would find beehives and, after removing the honey, melt down the remaining wax to remove unwanted hair.

6. Susie Sells Seashells By The Seashore

Renderings have shown that even very early humans were removing their hair. Among cavemen’s fossils, there has been evidence that seashells were used as a method to remove unwanted hair.

While this method would have removed the hair, one would imagine some skin also came along with it.

7. Gotta Love Sugar, On My Legs

Sugaring is another hair removal method from Ancient Egypt. This precursor to modern waxing can still be done today with some know-how and patience.

It’s a simple concoction of sugar, water, and lemon juice melted together to form a hot paste. This is placed on the hair just like wax and removed with a cotton cloth.

8. Bring On The Cat Poop!

During Elizabeth I’s reign in England it became fashionable to have no facial hair at all, including no eyebrows.

From a young age, they would rub compounds made from walnut oil and ammonia onto the face of children to prevent hair from growing.

Another popular way to prevent hair from growing is rubbing a paste of feline feces on your face.

Thank goodness they left all their other hair intact or I would imagine some nasty infections would have taken place.

9. With Fires A Plenty Gotta Use That Ash For Something

While the Mesopotamians used the typical methods for removing the hair they did create the first recording shaving cream.

They would rub wood alkali all over a man’s beard and let it sit before shaving him. Wood alkali is the leftover ash from a wood fire. It was thought to have softening qualities.

10. Fat Isn’t Just For Flavor

Those Mesopotamians weren’t fans of waste. Not only were they using fire ashes to make beard hair supple but they used leftover animal fat as well.

The fat from butchered animals would be delivered to barbers to use for grooming.

11. Lost Your Razor? Grab An Egg

Turns out that eggs aren’t just for breakfast anymore.

A mixture of egg white, cornstarch, and sugar will create a natural mask you can apply, let dry, and then peel off.

The hair will come off right along with it.

Yank, Pluck, Rub, Wax: Hair Removal Is Here To Stay

No matter what you may think about it, women and men alike have been using all kinds of hair removal methods for centuries.

From ancient times to the middle ages, all the way up until today it is commonplace for, women especially, to be hairless. We are lucky to live in the time of safety razors and professional waxers.

Something about rubbing arsenic and cat poop onto my hairy places isn’t quite as appealing as grabbing my Schick.

Having trouble keeping hair where you want it to be? Read this blog on some of the weirder causes of hair loss.

Want to keep the hair you want nice and healthy? Here are some weird hair tips and tricks that may help!

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